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The Bible: An American Translation (AAT) is an English version of the Bible consisting of the Old Testament translated by a group of scholars under the editorship of John Merlin Powis Smith,[1] the Apocrypha translated by Edgar J. Goodspeed, and the New Testament translated by Edgar J. Goodspeed.
| An American Translation | |
|---|---|
| Full name | The Bible, An American Translation |
| Abbreviation | AAT |
| Language | English |
| Complete Bible published | 1931; 1939 with Apocrypha |
| Authorship | J.M. Powis Smith (OT) and Edgar J. Goodspeed (deuterocanonical books and NT) |
| Publisher | The University of Chicago Press |
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was a desolate waste, with darkness covering the abyss and a tempestuous wind raging over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light!"
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that no one who believes in him should be lost, but that they should all have eternal life. | |
This translation has been made available in a number of editions as shown here:
| Edition | Year | Editors | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| The New Testament: An American Translation | 1923 | Goodspeed | University of Chicago Press |
| The New Testament: An American Translation | 1927 | Powis Smith | University of Chicago Press |
| The Bible: An American Translation | 1931 | Powis Smith and Goodspeed | University of Chicago Press |
| The Short Bible: An American Translation | 1933 | Powis Smith and Goodspeed | University of Chicago Press |
| The Junior Bible: An American Translation | 1936 | Goodspeed | Macmillan |
| The Apocrypha: An American Translation | 1938 | Goodspeed | University of Chicago Press |
| The Complete Bible: An American Translation | 1939 | Powis Smith and Goodspeed | University of Chicago Press |
| The Apocrypha: An American Translation[3] | 1959 | Goodspeed | Vintage Books |
In the preface to the 1931 edition, Powis Smith and Goodspeed wrote, "The rapid advance of learning in recent years in the fields of history, archaeology, and language has thrown new light upon every part of the Bible. At the same time our changing English speech has carried us farther and farther from the sixteenth-century diction in which all our standard versions of it are clothed. Yet the great messages of the Old and New Testaments were never more necessary than in our present confused and hurried life. We have, therefore, sought to produce a new translation of them, based upon the assured results of modern study, and put in the familiar language of today."[citation needed]
The initial reaction to the use of this translation, rather than the King James Bible of the 1600s, was poor,[4] but the idea of a 20th century Bible version was accepted over time.[5]
A similarly named Bible translated by William Beck, was published in 1976.[6] This was a reaction against the Revised Standard Version.[7]
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